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Major Land Resource Area (MLRA) Statistics

Major land resource areas (MLRAs) are geographically associated land resource units, usually encompassing several thousand acres, characterized by a particular pattern of soils, geology, climate, water resources, and land use. A unit can be one continuous area or several separate nearby areas.

Information regarding MLRAs serves as a basis for making decisions about national and regional agricultural concerns. Understanding MLRAs also helps to identify needs for research and resource inventories, to provide a broad base for extrapolating the results of research within national boundaries, and to serve as a framework for organizing and operating resource conservation programs.

In California there are 16 different MLRAs.

MLRAs in California
MLRA No. MLRA Name
4 California Coastal Redwood Belt
5 Siskiyou-Trinity Area
14 Central California Coastal Valleys
15 Central California Coast Range
16 California Delta
17 Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys
18 Sierra Nevada Foothills
19 Southern California Coastal Plain
20 Southern California Mountains
21 Klamath and Shasta Valleys and Basins
22 Sierra Nevada Range
23 Malheur High Plateau
26 Carson Basin and Mountains
29 Southern Nevada Basin and Range
30 Mohave Basin and Range
31 Imperial Valley

The following table provides information on broad land cover for the California MLRAs. For further information, contact: ca.nri@ca.usda.gov.
 

Note:  All estimates are for non-Federal lands only.

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1997 Broad Land Cover/use Statistics by Major Land Resource Area (PDF; 116 KB)